When trying to identify the cause of damage, the most important things to look for are:

• form of damage (i.e. browsing, bark stripping or fraying, descriptions below)
• height of damage
• time of year when damage occurred
• presence and size of teeth marks
• signs of animal presence and abundance - droppings, footprints, runs, scrapes or burrows.

Descriptions of deer damage

Bark stripping - This results from deer shaving off tree bark with their lower teeth for food. The broad parallel teeth marks are often clearly visible, running more or less vertically. Excessive stripping may eventually kill the tree.

Browsing - Eating of buds and shoots of newly formed growth. Tree seedlings, coppice regrowth and herbaceous plants and flowers. The lack of ground and lower vegetation has a knock-on effect in that the loss of cover prevents ground nesting birds breeding, insects decline and tree seedlings cannot develop into the next crop of new trees. Muntjac have also been witnessed bending sapling trees over by walking over them and pushing them with their chest, this then allows them to browse on growth that was previously out of reach.

Fraying - caused by male deer rubbing their antlers (and facial scent glands) against tree stems and foliage as a form of sexual aggression, to remove velvet or as territory marking. Fraying can cause significant damage on valuable trees and small areas of young woodland. Fallow and Muntjac bucks are also known to thrash plastic tree shelters to pieces.

Other tips- Lack of teeth in front upper jaw of all deer species produces ragged edge on damaged twigs, the teeth of rabbits and hares produce a sharp knife like cut.

Deer damage on the left and rabbit damage on the right.

Muntjac may bite partly through thin tall stems and pull them down to eat. Sheep and deer browsing damage are often very similar in form but sheep tend to leave wool evidence.